"The fact that claims continue to drift back toward pre-Easter levels provides important evidence that the level of activity in the labor market did not stall in recent weeks," said Joseph LaVorgna, chief economist at Deutsche Bank, in a note Thursday.

Economist Michael Gapen of Barclays Capital said the latest reading shows that the improvement in the labor market seen earlier this year has not vanished, despite the temporary jump in new claims filings in April.

"The fact that initial claims held their decline last week is supportive of the idea that the recent softness in initial claims has reversed," Gapen said.

There were also 61,000 fewer people receiving continuing unemployment benefits, as that reading for the week ended April 28 -- the most recent week available -- fell to 3.23 million from 3.29 million.

"Continuing claims never altered their downward trend, even while initial claims were moving higher in previous weeks," Gapen said. "Normally, initial and continuing claims will exhibit similar movements when underlying trends in the labor market are shifting."